"The central doctrine of Christianity, then, is not that God is a bastard. It is, in the words of the late Dominican theologian Herbert McCabe, that if you don’t love you’re dead, and if you do, they’ll kill you."--Terry Eagleton

"It is impossible for me to say in my book one word about all that music has meant in my life. How then can I hope to be understood?--Ludwig Wittgenstein

“The opposite of poverty is not wealth; the opposite of poverty is justice."--Bryan Stevenson

Tuesday, June 19, 2018

No, He Really, Really Meant It

This is not the POTUS; this is your crazy racist uncle after the third glass of wine at Thanksgiving. That little girl on the tape who'd memorized her aunt's phone number? Yeah, she learned that script Trump recites, too. I'm surprised he didn't mention fake families while he was at it.

We've surpassed Germany for the number of asylum seekers? Didn't we used to be proud of something like that? And the slam at "Crooked Hillary Clinton"? She had her chance, but you can't let go of her? She lost, so she should shut up in perpetuity? Is this guy six years old?

That meeting with GOP Congresscritters is not going to do anything to change this, and I think the WSJ editorial board is right: this is going to cost them the Congress in November. Even Ted Cruz had to scramble to put together a bill to keep families in immigration detention together because his opponent Beto O'Rourke got so much coverage for going to Tornillo on Father's Day while Cruz was playing basketball with Jimmy Fallon (look it up, I'm not linking everything). This issue is white-hot and Trump keeps pumping the bellows.

I'd say it was a good thing, but I keep thinking of all those crying children and of the Sociopath-in-Chief in the Oval Office. At least everybody knows exactly what he's talking about. Blather about "deep state" and "Crooked Hillary" doesn't really mean much against children in cages. But that's about all that's good about it; otherwise, it's indefensible and reprehensible. When even Ted Cruz wants to file "emergency" legislation to look like he's doing something, you know you're on the wrong side of the issue.

And I can't resist dropping this in, because Trump is in love with that "10% rise in crime in Germany" lie. As Vox explains it:

The White House didn’t respond to a request for clarification, but our best guess is [Trump is referring to] a German government-sponsored report from January that showed violent crime increased 10 percent between 2015 and 2016 in the German state of Lower Saxony. The study attributed 90 percent of the increase in violent crime to young male refugees. However, unlike Trump, who is using this statistic to argue against accepting refugees altogether, this study suggested language classes, sports, and job opportunities for these migrants. It also said these refugees should be reunited with their families.